ZZ Top to ‘Pull Out All the Stops’ for 50th Anniversary

Billy Gibbons says there are big things planned for ZZ Top's 50th anniversary, which takes place next year. That includes a new tour, and perhaps new music.

ZZ Top formed in Houston in 1969 and released their first album two years later. Since 1970, the lineup has consisted of Gibbons, bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard.

“It's such a rarity to find this, the same three guys playing the same three chords and you look up and say, 'Gee, it's 50 years!' That's pretty wild,” Gibbons tells Billboard in a new interview. “I think it's cause for celebration. We'll certainly pull out all the stops. Furthermore, it gives us a good excuse to go back and relearn some of the stuff we're supposed to already know."

He added that Hill and Beard have also supplied some “starter pieces” they created in the studio, which presumably might lead to ZZ Top's first original tracks since 2012's La Futura.

Their goal was always geared to furthering a much larger music legacy. “We continue to have a good time doing what we do, and that thing we do is playing what we want to hear. It’s an excursive in mutual gratification so on the party train, especially after all this time,” Gibbons said last year.

“The original inspiration is still there: the blues," he added. "We heard Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Jimmy Reed and B.B. King and decided that’s what we not only wanted to do but needed to do. The fact that all of these giants continued to keep on keepin’ on is instructive, as well. The motivation to continue remains letting the good times roll and those who hear our music understand we have something to offer so the continuum, er, uh, continues!”